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Shaping a better world: Arup deploys Pexip Globally

Large Scale Enterprise-Wide Conferencing Connects Professionals

January 26, 2014

Oslo, Norway – Independent professional services firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists, Arup has deployed the Pexip® Infinity scalable software platform worldwide. The deployment will enable Arup’s 11,000 staff across 38 countries to use high definition video, voice and data collaboration and will also be used to connect to Arup’s clients.

“In Arup, we aim to introduce new, forward thinking, innovative and simple to operate technologies into our business. The deployment of Pexip Infinity will not only reinvent how our company communicates internally but will also change how we communicate with our external clients,” explained Roy Salfarlie, Head of AV, UKMEA AV Media Services at Arup.

Simen Teigre, CEO at Pexip said: “The way in which Arup has deployed our technology is testament to the simplified, interoperable and virtualized way in which our Infinity software helps people to collaborate. We look forward to enjoying a partnership with Arup for many years to come.”

Pexip ensures simplicty meets functionality

“Initially, within our proof of concept for next generation virtual meeting rooms, we were evaluating bridging solutions from three different vendors. However, we found these to be more complex than needed – they also required proprietary hardware and could not achieve satisfactory interoperability and HD video integration with Microsoft® Lync. Pexip Infinity was brought in through a revised vendor list. It met our requirements for a software-only solution and we had it working globally in less than two hours. We were really impressed,” explained Chris Ellen, Unified Messaging Team Lead at Arup.

Arup was traditionally using Cisco Jabber™ but wanted to extend their mobile video portfolio by introducing Microsoft Lync. “Using Pexip Infinity means you can dial in and use the same PC or device for a video call but at increased quality. We don’t have to license additional software clients either which is an attractive value proposition,” explained Ellen.

Video conferencing for today and beyond

Arup staff are issued with a personal Virtual Meeting Room with a PIN number for security. Individual users can control their conferences and view presentations from their own mobile phone or tablet.

“Our existing video infrastructure was physically restricted by the number of hardware boxes in our network. With Pexip Infinity, there’s no restriction on the number of people that can use the system. The platform is always on and always available, which enables the team to connect instantly whenever collaboration is required in their workflow,” said Ellen.

“Unlike traditional DSP-based MCUs, Pexip’s conferencing nodes are virtual machines that can sit on either a VMware® or Microsoft Hyper-V infrastructure making use of standard server architecture. For Arup, minimal to no investment is required to start deploying the solution as we can utilize existing infrastructure. Being virtual also means conferencing capacity can be increased within minutes and the platform is inherently redundant.”

Arup intends to extend the solution to incorporate client meetings. “We can now use the Pexip WebRTC functionality for external meeting participants. In the past we had to ship a copy of Cisco Jabber™ and provision a user account. This was cumbersome for everyone involved, it introduced a delay and had a cost attached to it. With Pexip Infinity we now just email a URL and external callers can experience professional quality video via their web browser,” explained Ellen.

“As an early adopter of Infinity, we have been involved in beta testing and providing feedback directly to the Pexip development team. The openness we enjoy with Pexip is refreshing and it helps us to plan for the future. Pexip Infinity is a good strategic fit for Arup.”

About Arup

Arup is the creative force at the heart of many of the world’s most prominent projects in the built environment and across industry. From 90 offices in 38 countries worldwide our 11,000 planners, designers, engineers and consultants deliver innovative projects across the world.